Orfi Discovers: Basketball

Welcome to Orfi Discovers, a companion blog to our Orfi Discovers series in which we explore sports and fitness activities that you may not have heard of, but we think you'd love. To begin,we start off with our thoughts on basketball.

LeBron James, Kobe Bryant, Micheal Jordan...

Over its years basketball has generated some global superstars, making it not only one of the biggest sports in the world, but also influencing the music, film and fashion industry.

But for those unfamiliar with the sport, here’s a quick rundown.

The rules are, for the most part, pretty simple.

Set over four fast paced quarters, the aim of the game is for your team to outscore the opposition by throwing a ball into a hoop three meters above the ground.

Pretty straightforward, right? Well, there are plenty more detailed rules to learn, some of which we cover in the video, but these are just the basics.

And while the 120-year-old game has certainly evolved, the fundamentals haven’t really changed.

All you need to play is a couple of friends, a ball and a hoop, all of which are easily accessible.

But before we started playing, we wanted to speak to Stephen Graham, former professional basketball player and coach, to understand how someone can get involved with basketball in the UK.

It’s hard to explain the feeling of successfully shooting the ball into the hoop, but If you’ve ever thrown a crumpled piece of paper into the bin from a distance, then you’ll know what we mean.

Add to that the triumphs of a successful pass, block or assist and you’ve got a highly rewarding game in front of you.

‍

We’ve been completely absorbed with the sport, not only playing, but also watching and keeping up to date with the latest news in the UK and US. So if you want to see our efforts trying out basketball in full, check out the video below.

Whether you used to play but stopped, have played a few times in school or are completely new to the sport, we’d recommend trying a session nearby to see if you enjoy it as much as we did.

There are plenty of sessions in the UK, but to find one close to you make sure to check out the Orfi Active app.